First time poster/new DJ! Moving up to club CDJs…

I would have no problem doing a try-out for “free”, especially if the place is something you’d really like to get into. Limited to an hour or so though, don’t do a whole night for free. If they can’t figure out what you have to offer after about an hour, they’re never gonna figure it out. Obviously you don’t want to be the one opening (empty house) or closing (too many drunks :-)), but anywhere in between would be fine. That way you can chat up the resident DJ(s) before going on and gather some valuable info from him/her(them). Hey, and if you can bring 20-30 friends, it’ll be a great night anyway, right? (Wish I had 20-30 friends, but that’s another story :().

As far as gear goes. This was never an issue in “my” days. You’d just play whatever gear was there. I still think that goes a long way to show you are professional and flexible. The moment you start making “demands” (even soft ones, like “I’d prefer using my own gear as opposed to your 6k+ dollar pro setup”) it takes away some of your appeal. Unless you are a big name headliner (in which case your agent will send them your rider way in advance and you don’t have to worry about gear), I think if you can just show up, stick in your usb-stick (and by all means carry spare CD’s with you as well! USB-sticks work … MOST of the time) and do your thing, that will show the owner/booker/promoter that you are a true professional, not phased by whatever gear is thrown at you.

Another reason is that you don’t want to be fiddling around with all the cabling and stuff. Theoretically it is possible to set everything up in advance at home, drivers and such. But if you don’t have the gear there to test it out, I sure wouldn’t want to do this in a new place on my try-out night. You don’t need the added stress of “will it all work like I planned”. Plugging in your own controller into the house PA (especially if they have some extra channels free) is way different from trying to get USB leads in the back of CDJ-2000s being used by someone and bring it all to a laptop and then trying to get HID to work properly. If you are not DJ #1, you’ll have to try hooking up while another DJ is using the gear (or be there before opening and hook it up then), also not winning you any points with the current crew.

If and when you get a (semi-)permanent/regular gig there, it becomes a different story. You can discuss with them that you’d like to bring your own controller/laptop setup with you. You’ll probably end up talking to the house engineer, find a mutually satisfactory way of setting up/hooking up. Maybe do a sound check and have everyone sign off on your gear. That way you have it all checked and tested and, everyone knows you are bringing gear of your own and you are good to go.

Since you said you trust yourself enough to be using CDJ-style units and you can manually beatmatch, I’d suggest going in there with your RekordBox USB-sticks (it is worth the effort getting to know RB and how to prepare a stick for a Pioneer gig anyway) and CD’s for backup and just rock the place. They’ll love you for being ‘low-maintenance’.

Greetinx and good luck,
C.

Nah you are OK Chuck.
If there are good CDJs (2ks, 2k Nexus, 1k MkII) and possibly even a Traktor Scratch certified mixer, then I too bring a USB stick or my laptop (I have a TSL license) with me and save myself some weight.
It also depends on how large the booth is and if they are already used to controller DJs or even controllerists. If the booth is so large that you can easily setup your controller without even moving the CDJs, then I might feel tempted to bring it, even more so if they already have connector cables already hooked up to the PA. It is still the exception, but there are already a few out there that have those things.

As for not getting paid: If it is just a one time trial deal, then you can file it under “marketing” and do it. But I would make it perfectly clear to them, that if the tryout is successful, then I want cash money (and I am not speaking 20 bucks) for the next gig and there are no “second tryouts”.

Hellow Stirct Rules, DC Iz in da houzeee !!! welcome to the forum, and err no im not from DC, but I always dyin to say that =p
As many of the good folks here already points out, since this is your first time at this particular club and your first time to get your hands on CDJ, yeah keep it simple…
IF you come in bring in your DDJ controller, here’s what happened…
1. More than likely there’s going to be another DJ playing before or after you, so you be like “Excuszzze me err pardon me i want to plug here my controlla !!!….ow yeah wheres this plug goes into again? err do you have flashlight? I cant seee …”
2. That DJ WILL give you a I freakin slap in your face look that’s for sure …. heck I Would !
And you not gonna feel and look like a pro at all, believe me LOL

And what kind of CDJ is in the club ? CDJ 2000 ? 2000 Nexus ? ?
Be a good idea if you can drop by the day before your gig to check the stuff out, hell even take a pic of the setup and learn it at home, It’s annoying when you start playing and you trying to figure out wheres this button that button…(and in the dark)

I wouldnt even bother to do the 3 hot cue points, fancy stuff,
Stick with the basic, Cue button, Play Button, Next & Previous Button, your pitch control, and just mix smoothly
PS please be careful with the sliding thing under the pioneer LCD screen (dont know what its called), cause you can accidentally skip the track with that ( i did LOL)

SO yeah CD’s, backup CD’s, and USB as your sekret weapon

Chuck van Eekelen, post: 43222, member: 2756 wrote: It’s called “Needle Drop” and let’s you “drop” the virtual “needle” anywhere in the track.

Ah so THAT’s what its called lol, thank you !